Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed during a Thursday earnings call that heavy users of the company's revamped Siri AI may need to pay for expanded access through iCloud+ subscriptions1,2,4. It marks the first time Apple has acknowledged it will charge for the new AI-powered voice assistant.
"We do believe there will be people that want to use it a lot, and so we will have some kind of upgrade possibilities on iCloud+, where people can buy up the stack on iCloud+, and we'll see how the pickup for that is," Cook said. He added that the plans are not yet finalized.
The earnings call was Cook's final as CEO, with longtime Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering John Ternus set to succeed him. Cook said Apple is still developing its plan to address the higher computing costs that come with the improved assistant.
Apple unveiled the long-delayed Siri upgrade at its developer conference in June. A public beta launched in July, with broad availability planned for the fall alongside new iPhones and iOS 27. The revamped Siri AI can answer questions about what is on a user's screen, take action across apps, and includes a new standalone app offering a ChatGPT-like interface.
Apple is relying in part on Google Gemini models to help power the new Siri. TechCrunch noted that Apple had licensed a custom Gemini model to augment Siri, characterizing it as a concession to a direct competitor.
The monetization approach mirrors the broader AI industry. Anthropic and OpenAI both offer limited free consumer tiers with paid upgrades for heavier usage. Apple has also indicated that users will need a paid iCloud subscription to access a new home security feature in the next version of iOS.
Bloomberg and other outlets had previously predicted that some features of the new iPhone operating system would require a paid iCloud subscription.
Cook framed the early response to the Siri overhaul positively, saying that favorable reviews "underscore our philosophy that building AI that is private and based on personal context can change how users find information and get things done with our products in a way that truly enriches their lives".
The Siri AI rollout comes after significant delays. Apple paid $250 million to settle a class action lawsuit over how it marketed the iPhone 16's AI capabilities.
ANALYSIS Tying AI compute costs to iCloud+ rather than launching a separate subscription product lets Apple layer AI monetization onto an existing billing relationship with hundreds of millions of users, reducing friction compared to a standalone AI subscription. The tiered approach also aligns Apple's AI pricing model with the usage-based structures already established by Anthropic and OpenAI, while embedding it within a proprietary services ecosystem that competitors cannot replicate.